Look! Mixing Up Flor Tiles at the New Office

Last December, I had the pleasure of meeting the founder of FLOR, Greg Colando, and checking out the one and only FLOR retail store in Chicago. Hearing Greg talk about all the different ways of using FLOR tiles got me inspired to try using them myself, but I didn't have a good reason to do so. Cut to just over a month later, when we moved into our new office and I realized that the stylish concrete floors were going to kill us unless we covered them, and I had the opportunity I'd been looking for.

The FLOR showroom in Chicago

I had two big rooms to cover and a few little nooks. I was busy and I needed a quick solution. The answer? Do a mix of styles in the same color to make it lively and hide dirt and imperfections.

Clicking into the FLOR website I simply dialed up an array of four black styles and four red styles. I DID NOT even order samples, but just trusted my gut. I figured if something was really bad, I could return it.

Red Styles Chosen

Velvet rope

Rake me over

Straight and narrow

Twist and shout

Black Styles Chosen

Finer things

Favorite jeans

Straight and narrow

Rake me over

LOTS of boxes arrived about a week later and we got to laying them all down. There was quite a bit of nervousness at first, as SOME PEOPLE thought that the color shades were not going to work well together. I had my doubts as well, but I liked the risk.

We got each room done in about 3 hours. It was fun to do, they went down easily and it just took a little patience to get across the really big floor. Putting on some music really helped.

When laying down mixtures of tile like this, you really get a hankering for the brightest or "starring" tile, and you're glad that you're mixing it in with a bunch of mellower guys. Among the reds the Straight & Narrow was the favorite, and among the blacks, Favorite Jeans was (it had a cool selvedge stripe on some pieces). I spaced these out in a pattern so that they wouldn't meet up and would recur without "stripe-ing" along the floor.

To do this, you choose an order like A - B - C - D and then repeat it along that line and then stagger the same pattern along the next line (I slid the pattern two places):

NOTE: if you think this reads like an advertisement for FLOR, don't be distressed. While this is in no way a paid ad, I happen to be a big fan of FLOR and am happy to recommend them. My interest in FLOR actually started years ago when I listened to FLOR's CEO, Ray Andersen, speak on sustainability and describe his commitment to making his entire company, Interface, totally sustainable by 2020. I'm delighted to see that FLOR has taken this mission into the retail community and all of the tiles that I purchased are returnable and recyclable, as well as largely made from recycled materials.